Jesus Christ on a tortilla they’re at it again. This time a woman in Florida has found an image of Jesus on a crisp (potato chip to the Americans), according to Ananova. "Oh my goodness", she is reported to have said. (Wouldn’t “Jesus Christ” have been more appropriate?) Presumably the next thing she did was log in to eBay: recently someone sold a toasted cheese sandwich with an image of the Virgin Mary for $28,000. Seems to me Jesus is worth more than Mary, but then I’m not religious. (Why don’t I ever find valuable snacks like this?)
I’m reminded of the old Johnny Carson interview with the potato chip lady. She had a plate full of potato chips she had collected over several years, each with some kind of image in them. Johnny’s sidekick Ed McMahon distracted the lady for a second, and Johnny picked up a chip from a bowl he had hidden under his desk and noisily ate it. The woman’s expression when she thought Johnny had eaten one of her chips, was priceless.
I'll venture to point out that selling the aforesaid item on ebay, far from being evidence of religious idiocy, would in fact be the most rational action to take.
Posted by: Blue State | June 09, 2005 at 06:15 PM
True. Buying it, however, might be a different matter. ;-)
Posted by: Skeptico | June 09, 2005 at 08:02 PM
It occurs to me that something like this would be immensely easy to forge using, say, a match or cigarette lighter. Or even some black ink. The road to wealth on eBay, I suspect, could suffer a traffic jam if too many people catch on.
In other thoughts, a woman who collects potato chips over the years with images on them must be pitifully sad and lonely.
Posted by: mw | June 11, 2005 at 01:51 AM
How does anyone know how Jesus actually looked like?
I'm also wondering how prevalent pareidolia is in non-Christian religions. Do other cultures also stumble upon images of their deities in mundane objects? And what do they do with them? Venerate them? Wouldn't the existence of such nonChristian "appearances" be a blow to Christians who believe their deity is the only god in town? Or is it the case that "what you have is pareidolia, mine is the real McCoy," just as "you have mythology, I have religion."
Posted by: hb | June 13, 2005 at 08:42 AM
Today is March 23, 2006. As fast as you can, you must:
1. Go to eBay
2. Search "Jesus on a Tortilla Chip"
3. Expect a Miracle
It's auction 9501037586 and it got more than 1,000 hits in its first three days.
Proof that there's a sucker born every minute!
Posted by: | March 23, 2006 at 09:31 PM